I run/walk so they can read
I am participating in ILP's Strides for Literacy, walking/running 200 miles over 8 weeks to help support the children in rural India who face trying circumstances as they aspire to go to school.
Their trying circumstances stem from difficult situations at home and COVID closures of schools in the past few years leading to deep learning losses.
The impact of trying circumstances on children is broad and has many layers.
- Many children have dropped out of school to get supplemental income for their families. According to a recent survey more than ⅓ of school going rural children have dropped out of school.
- Many girls have been married of at young ages due to income loss in the family.
- Learning losses are significant. Less than 10% of rural students have access to online learning.
ILP (India Literacy Project) is focused on working with the community to address the issue of child marriages, child dropouts and address learning losses. ILP is investing in a local resource 'Vidya Saathi' who can work with children individually, understand their learning challenges and get them back into the groove of learning. The Vidya Saathis run Village learning centers where children come and are provided support to catch up on their learning losses. The community and parents are extremely supportive of this initiative to get their children back on the right track.
ILP has recruited over 980+ Vidya Saathis to support 900+ villages and I am participating in this event to support raising funds for this program that will help children catch up. Every stride i take, helps me fund a Vidya Saathi to help children in one more village.
Your dollars and impact
Here is a rough idea on how much your dollars can impact a program
- $1000 : Support an interactive classroom with science kits and digital lessons for 300 children.
- $500 : Support a library program to improve reading for 500 children
- $200 : Support a 'Vidya Saathi' a village based resource who works with around 30 children to address the learning loss
- $120 : Support hands on science kits for 300 children
- $50 : Support retention of 2 children in school
There are many other programs run by ILP to deliver quality education to children in rural India. Please see https://strides.ilpnet.org/whyilp/ to get a quick overview. To ask any questions pertaining to ILP please write to strides@ilpnet.org.
ILP has received Guidestar Seal of Transparency
Rekha Goel
ILP Tax Id: 36-3779020
